To be honest, I didn't believe Zhuoma Yangjin was any kind of princess either. Just as I was about to ask Old Li again, the four people sent out by the old woman suddenly headed in our direction. Especially the young girl, who ran the fastest. As soon as she saw Zhuoma Yangjin, she excitedly and respectfully called out, "Princess." After speaking, she stole a glance at me, covering her mouth as she giggled.

My curiosity finally got the better of me, and I asked Zhuoma Yangjin directly, "Are you a princess? From which country?"

The young girl looked at me with a mischievous smile and replied, "Guge—a princess of the Guge Dynasty."

I thought she was joking, and just as I was about to ask Zhuoma Yangjin, she waved her hand and said, "I'm tired... Zhuoga. Send them where they need to go. I am very tired..."

It turned out the old woman was named Zhuoga. I was just about to say something to her when she unexpectedly pulled out something resembling the golden-eyed silver bead from her bosom. Following that, my ears buzzed, and I felt my body plunge into boundless darkness...

...After a bout of dizziness, I looked at the scene before me in disbelief. Old Li was nowhere to be seen; it seemed I was the only one in the entire underground space. Before me lay a expanse of fiery red flames, and the final level of this seven-story pagoda was nothing short of a blazing landscape of molten rock.

Yet, why wasn't I feeling any underground heat on the sixth level? My head was ringing fiercely. I couldn't fathom such a colossal presence existing beneath Guge, or perhaps, I was utterly stunned by the miraculous spectacle of this place!

"Old Li! Old Li!"

I took a breath and started shouting for Old Li desperately, but after shouting for a long time, I heard no response whatsoever. We had come down together; how could he be missing now? Since entering this seven-story pagoda, we had encountered nothing but misfortune. Even though I was on edge, my nerves were becoming slightly numb. I tried to comfort myself internally: no matter how dangerous it got, it couldn't be worse than the price exacted on the third level; it shouldn't cost me my life.

Thinking this, I gripped the gilded Tibetan knife I had obtained from Yangjin and adjusted my mood, continuing forward. For some unknown reason, after falling out with Yangjin, my courage seemed to have grown, accompanied by an uncontrollable urge to seek out risky ventures. Could this be courage?

After taking a few steps forward, a thought suddenly struck me: why wasn't it hot here? Logically, a place with so much lava should be scorching, but in reality, since arriving here, I hadn't felt any particularly obvious change in temperature. This meant something was very wrong with this place!

Fortunately, I was still some distance from that strange lava. Realizing this, I naturally halted my steps, but I hadn't expected that stopping would lead me to see something utterly horrifying.

By this time, I had already witnessed countless unbelievable things; strictly speaking, I considered myself seasoned and bold, yet upon seeing that thing, every pore on my body instantly retracted. I nearly dropped the Tibetan knife in my hand, almost letting it fall to the ground.

Because standing before me was unmistakably a Faceless One, and more terrifyingly, its sheer size far exceeded anything I could have imagined. It stood there silently, its entire body streaked with faint traces of blood, sending shivers down my scalp.

I knew how Faceless Ones were formed—those monsters resulted from crystal scorpions parasitizing a human brain. But regardless, they never exceeded normal human size. This Faceless One, just by standing there, instilled a surge of panic in me. Visually estimating its height, it had to be at least four meters tall. If it were truly formed by human parasitism, the NBA rulebook would need a serious rewrite!

I don't know what nonsense was running through my head at that moment—to even compare that monster to Yao Ming. I paused for a while, and seeing no movement from the Faceless One, my courage surged again. I blindly optimistically assumed the creature might be dead or otherwise incapacitated, meaning there was no immediate danger. I soothed myself with this thought.

Gripping the Tibetan knife again, I cautiously edged toward the Faceless One. The monster really seemed dead; I approached until I was only about ten meters away, and it remained motionless the entire time. I caught that familiar scent in the air—that nauseating, spoiled-grease odor—yet something felt fundamentally off, something I couldn't quite articulate. Every time I looked at the Faceless One’s face, I felt an inexpressible sensation, a suffocating discomfort in my chest, as if I was about to vomit but couldn't quite bring it up. In other words, I felt there was something peculiar about its face.

I finally reached the last stone directly in front of it and finally noticed what was wrong. Although the Faceless One’s face lacked most of its original features, a careful look revealed faint indentations beneath the swollen skin where eyes and a nose once were. This particular Faceless One’s entire face appeared as one smooth expanse, completely devoid of any trace of former organs.

Could it be that this wasn't a Faceless One? At that thought, my hairs stood up again.

If not a Faceless One, what kind of monster could it be?

Before I could figure it out, I suddenly heard a faint sound. In the eerie silence of this cavernous lower level, that soft noise seemed jarringly loud. I turned my head, nearly screaming out loud, but I clamped my hand tightly over my mouth, stifling the gasp that threatened to escape.

Not far from my side, Old Li was sliding off a massive boulder toward the underground lava. He was on the verge of plunging into the brilliant red molten flow.

My mind raced, and I disregarded everything else. I rushed toward where he was slipping, shouting desperately, "Old Li! Old Li!" Fortunately, the distance between us wasn't too great. Just as he was about to slide into the lava, only a meter or two away, I managed to jump behind him and haul him back.

It was then I realized that what looked like lava was not lava at all, but a substance emitting a faint red glow. Moreover, I could vaguely discern what looked like human forms constantly churning within those pseudo-molten pools.

For some reason, Old Li’s eyes remained tightly shut. Looking at those red masses, a sense of foreboding welled up in my heart. But with Old Li still unconscious, all I could do was pull him tight against the stone wall, terrified he might slip and fall.

But this wasn't a solution. I had no idea what the situation was, what those things below might be, whether that Faceless One was alive or dead and might suddenly attack us, or—most importantly—how much of my already depleted stamina I could maintain. If Old Li didn't wake up soon, I lacked the strength to drag him out of this damned place.

I yelled desperately into Old Li’s ear, "Old Li, Old Li, don't do this! If you die, I'll be stuck here too. Wake up, please wake up!"

Thankfully, Old Li showed some conscience and groaned at the critical moment, giving me a flicker of hope. About ten minutes later, he finally woke up. However, he clearly didn't grasp the perilous nature of our situation. The moment he regained consciousness, he nearly wrenched free of my grasp and tumbled down. It was only by holding onto him with all my might that I prevented him from having an intimate encounter with the horrific things below. Who knew what those things were? If he fell in and became a Faceless One with an even bigger mouth, we would truly be done for in this cursed place.

It took a while longer for him to fully clear his head. We clung to the rock face, shuffling for a good while, before finally managing to stand steady against the narrow ledge. Looking down at the red material below, Old Li seemed thoughtful, but my own mind was in chaos, leaving me no time to study his expression. My thoughts were consumed entirely by the problem of how to cross this bizarre expanse, which was only about a meter wide.

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